AMSHINOV- no quarter asked,no quarter given

Friday, November 18, 2005

Good Shabus Folks

Mean'Katch

....This is really unbelievable stuff!!! A 9 minute video of jewish life in munkatch. You see the munkatcher chasuneh, about three minutes in, some kids singing Hatikva (nusach Shem Shloma ?) then a cheder, a seforim store, and life on the streets. About seven minutes in are the irreligious youth dancing a mixed hora singing chasidisha nigunim all the while... the ups and downs of life in prewar munkatch. Enough to make you cry. What a lost world!!! It's just amazing. Enjoy!

Von on Von

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Satmar Ha'kufos

..

..Members of the Satmar Rebbe's elder son Aaron’s community, invaded the Simchas Torah services at the Williamsburg shul where his younger brother is spiritual leader.The intrusion resulted in disturbances outside the Shul and police were called to disperse a crowd whose size was estimated at between 500 and 1,000 people. Police arrested 26 men, after they entered offices connected to the synagogue. The men, followers of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, were accused of scouring documents and trashing furniture and equipment.The men were charged with misdemeanours including burglary, criminal mischief, petty larceny and trespassing.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Do Me Som'ding, Ya

....

Last night I heard Hella Winston author of the book Unchosen : The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels speak, many of the quests at the reading were not orthodox, but ' Baruch Hashem' there were some ex-/ neo-/ post-/ quasi-/ pre-Heimishe present. The post Heimishe were easily identified as their Austro-Hungarian accents reared its’ ugly head, heck even famed Shtriemel was present (maybe ?).The overall atmosphere was anti-clerical or at least charged with rage against the Chasidic community. Yada , Yada , Yada ....

Some Points of Interest to Me:

-One woman wanted to know how the ‘Chasidics’ though ‘all’ poor, can ‘all’ afford big expensive cars. To which yours truly shut her down by heckling “All? All?”

-One gentleman who looked like his ancestors came from Puerto Rico asked several poignant questions, his annunciation though gave him away as a post-‘Yoli’.A very angry one at that.-Some oldhag wanted to know why her grandson wanted to become " a Lubavitch".(Duh the hot girls , think Mid'yan).-After the lecture we sat around guessing who’s’ who, which one of us was or is which blogger.

-We had 15 men with a yeshiva education and no minyan.

-In the elevator with a mix of neo-/ post-/ quasi-/ and pre-s one post-bobver named ‘Motti” claimed that a presumptuous fellow of the U/O Litvish persuasion said “Motti I’m glad you are no longer chassidish , why don’t you become a Litvak”

-I met someone once named Tully, who introduced me to his friend (?) [life's partner (?)] and had managed to lose his accent, the two of them are making a documentary about faith in America.Update see here

Worst Trade Since Rusty Staub for Mickey Lolich

I was walking along Raval (in Barcelona) when all of a sudden I understood that Europe died with Auschwitz. We assassinated 6 million Jews in order to end up bringing in 20 million Muslims!

We burnt in Auschwitz the culture, intelligence and power to create.

We burnt the people of the world, the one who is proclaimed the chosen people of God.

Because it is the people who gave to humanity the epic figures who were capable of changing history (Christ, Marx, Einstein, Freud...) and who represent the origin of progress and wellbeing.

We must admit that Europe, by relaxing its borders and giving in under the pretext of tolerance to the values of a fallacious cultural relativism, opened its doors to 20 million Muslims, often illiterates and fanatics that we could meet, at best, in places such as Raval, the poorest of the nations and of the ghettos, and who are preparing the worst, such as the 9/11 and the Madrid bombing and who are lodged in apartment blocs provided by the social welfare.

We also have exchanged culture with fanaticism, the capacity to create with the will to destroy, the wisdom with the superstition. We have exchanged the transcendental instinct of the Jews, who even under the worst possible conditions have always looked for a better, peaceful world, for the suicide bomber.

We have exchanged the pride of life for the fanatic obsession of death. Our death and that of our children.